Late as usual. I wanted to wait until I came back from the Mothman Festival (which was fun) but then a storm hit and I lost power until now.

In spired by Mothman have a snippet from my novel These Haunted Hills.

“if you wanted to see even more haunted places in southeast Ohio, we could go there and Jackson, or even down to Point Pleasant in West Virginia and meet the Mothman.”

Brendan fetched the wine from the kitchen. He uncorked it. “I’ve always wanted to go there because it’s a fun legend, but I never had the time.”

“There’s a little museum in town dedicated to him and the Silver Bridge collapse. I’m sure you know the association. They’ve even made one of the igloos at the TNT plant where the explosives were stored public because so many people tried sneaking onto the military complex. It’s not necessarily the one Scarberry and her friends were at when they saw the Mothman, but you can get the idea of it.”

“Is it scary?” Brendan poured the wine then joined Josh at the table. “Honestly, not to me, other than sometimes you run into truly strange people out there. They’re scarier than monsters.”

Blurb: Young wildlife conservation professor, Joshua Zimmerman, adores foxes, steampunk, and paranormal investigation. As a geek of the first order, Josh is a collector of nerdy memorabilia and tattoos, and he’s an avid steampunk cosplayer. When his favorite author hires him for some ghost hunting for his new project, Josh can hardly believe his luck.

As an author of the wildly successful urban fantasy series, The Green Tablet, Brendan Halloran should have it all. And he did until his young son, Connor, died of cancer. Heartbroken and drowning in grief, Brendan stops writing, stops living his life. His marriage has disintegrated, leaving Brendan trapped in the moment Connor died.

When Brendan rents a cabin in Ohio’s Hocking Hills, it’s ostensibly to research his next book, an adult paranormal tale. Brendan hires a local professor who is an expert on the paranormal, thinking if he does pull out of his tail spin and makes good on his plan to write a new book, he might as well do it right. And the perfect place to investigate could be the remains of an old hotel constructed to suit the serial killer who built it.

Brendan finds himself swept away, completely unprepared for the joy and enthusiasm Josh brings to everything he does. Step by step, Brendan reenters life. His head might not be convinced he’s ready to love again, but his heart disagrees. Unfortunately for him, the ghost is every bit as vicious as the killer was in life, and he and Joshua have a target on their backs.

URL – https://www.amazon.com/These-Haunted-Hills-Jana-Denardo-ebook/dp/B0CTBZ3LY6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2NXEC21Y0OM6P&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.lWEyxP5fbAa7LFyHDDP13dNqttzMV2dcElA6Mo9LnqJvDjHpirvFqAJIhq7vRghP.WX6M7P4-87chcKmValDlLgU8e7Ort7wRPzEtQ4fWGSs&dib_tag=se&keywords=these+haunted+hills+jana+denardo&qid=1758513391&sprefix=these+haunted+hills+jana+denardo%2Caps%2C95&sr=8-1

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I keep hoping September will be better than August but it’s starting off with my fridge dying so I’m not too confident about it.

Here’s more of the SF wip. Aneirin is taking Kaleo out to the first public event together and he is finding out even worse things about what it means to be a Toy. Here Aneirin is stopped by someone he doesn’t know.

“Your Toy doesn’t carry himself correctly, too proud,” the redhead said.

Kaleo’s finger dug deeper into Aneirin’s arm. Aneirin fought to ignore it as he asked, “I’m sorry, do I know you?”

“I’m Verlio. I head up Toy development in this region,” he replied. “They should never have let a Toy out who walks so proudly. A good Toy is submissive, diffident.”

“I like him this way. He suits me well. What would I want with someone broken?” Aneirin snarled.

The skin around Verlio’s pinched mouth tightened. “Let me take him back and have him reconditioned.” He reached out for Kaleo.

Kaleo’s distressed gasp prompted Aneirin to interlock fingers with him with one hand and knocking Verlio’s arm aside with the other. “There is no need. I’m very content with him as is.”

Verlio made another grab for Kaleo. “It pains me to see an inferior Toy walking around.”

Aneirin pushed passed him, Kaleo in tow. “Live in pain then.”

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I’m having a maddening time trying to find time for anything. I was at a steampunk con last week and missed playing along. The con was fun at least.

Picking back up with Aneirin and Kaleo’s story. They’re going to their first public outing and run into the person that convinced Aneirin’s friend to buy Kaleo for him.

As they walked in and he got a good look at the conference area, Aneirin regretted putting Kaleo in such conservative clothing. He could see several Toys and all had far more skin showing. He hadn’t read the manual far enough to find out if he was giving offense because he hadn’t dressed Kaleo in little more than a swim suit and some jewelry. Maybe the collar wouldn’t have been a bad idea, except it was too distracting.

Masozin, the last person Aneirin wanted to see, spotted them almost instantly. All Aneirin wanted was to have a conversation with Yaara about her Toy and about the information he’d hired her to uncover. Masozin’s eyes flicked over to the Kaleo and he grinned. “So, are you enjoying your present, Aneirin?”

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I’m house/cat sitting for my brother. I hope to get some work done on my writing but day one was not going great. So let’s just dive back into Kaleo and Aneirin’s story

They finally made it to the party

“This is going to be very hard for you.” Kaleo tugged at his shirt collar, flashing a hint of olive-toned skin.

Aneirin shifted on the shuttle’s seat, trying to ignore that delicate flare of collar bone. “It is. It would be good to keep to ourselves as much as possible.”

“If I’m not to be putting on a show for my master, I was well trained in keeping quiet and what did they call it? Demure? I wasn’t even sure what that meant.”

“So far you haven’t evidenced any skill at either.” Aneirin grinned, trying to picture Kaleo being demure and nearly laughed.

Kaleo curled a lip at him. “I might evidence my vast knowledge of curse words on you.”

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Another rough week that included an emergency tooth removal before blood thinners were out of my system. Ugh.

Continuing with the SF thing. Kaleo and Aneirin are discussing the first time he’ll be taking Kaleo out to a party.

“And Kaleo, I’m assuming they told you what it means when a Master claims he’s jealous,” Shyroth said.

“Yeah, it means I’m for you and you alone.” Kaleo wet his lips, thinking of the protection that would give him. “No one else can touch me unless they ask permission.”

“And I have no intention of giving it.” Shyroth spun back to his computers and shut the holos down. “I meant it when I said I wouldn’t let anyone hurt you.”

“Thank you, sir. I appreciate that. I’ll go get ready.”

Shyroth nodded without looking back. “Hopefully we won’t have to stay long.”

The Rainbow Snippet group can be found on Facebook. It’s a fun low-pressure snippet sharing group for LGBTQ+ fiction. Come join us. https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets